


H is for H-Bombs and Haruspices

by ivorygates



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Deathfic But They Get Better, Gate Teams Who Live In Glass Houses, Gen, Quantum States' Rights, That's No Way To Run An Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-06 01:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12806583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorygates/pseuds/ivorygates
Summary: He's dead, he's in Hell, and Hell is listening to Daniel Jackson lecture on quantum states for all Eternity.





	H is for H-Bombs and Haruspices

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where this thing came from, but I am going to be having nightmares about Brane architecture and Boltzman Babies for months to come and I don't even Physics. You have been warned. I think.
> 
> More whingeing in the endnotes. Also probably SPOILERS.

Jack's always liked Area 51. Dreamland. Paradise Ranch. The place where wonks and strategists meet to hone the cutting edge in aviation technology, or to test the best of the best against the best of the rest.

He thinks he might've liked it better before they _really_ started storing alien technology here.

His latest visit started one fine morning with him getting hauled out of bed three hours before his alarm went off and ended up with an Asgard Chariot hovering over Cheyenne Mountain. In an alternate universe, of course, which they were visiting in order to rescue an alternate SGC from a not-alternate-enough Apophis. With one thing and another there were more than a few near-death experiences before Mrs. O'Neill's favorite son could get his people home. So pretty much another day at the office.

(Daniel _swore_ he got them back to the right reality, and Carter agreed, and Carter is one smart cookie. He trusts her.)

The moment they're back and everything's locked down tight, General Hammond ships the Qantas Mirror (he'll never admit he knows its real name; it's too much fun to watch Carter make her "must not call a superior officer an idiot" face) back to Area 51 with orders to have it destroyed. (It's Daniel—of course—who _has_ to ask how Hammond can give an order like that when Area 51 is the _civilian_ side of their dog and pony show. There are times Jack really wishes Daniel would stop asking questions Daniel knows the answer to.)

And then, because nobody is paying SG-1 to rest on its laurels (which would be prickly anyway), they deal with an (alien) bounty hunter and star in a bad remake of an Arthur Miller play Jack's never really liked, and with one thing and another, the memo in his inbox a couple weeks later comes as a complete surprise. It announces that at long last, The Powers That Be are going to actually get around to destroying the alien McGuffin, and SG-1 and General Hammond are invited (in the sense of "ordered") to attend. Details about how Area 51 intends to get this done are scarce, and Carter hasn't been consulted. (What a surprise.) Jack has no idea what the reason for the ceremony is. (Probably above his pay grade.) Bleachers, bunting, brass...it's not that it seems sacrilegious, but somehow maybe a little bit...off. Wrong. Weird. Gonzo. (Nobody he can talk to about it, though. A guy's gotta preserve his air of mystery, after all.)

When they get there, the first part of the festivities is a tour of the facility. Clearly their minders are hoping to bore the visiting firemen into submission so they can be herded in the direction of some transport to take them somewhere else. (Preferably to the reason they're here in the first place.) The tour is long on snake oil (so to speak), short on information, and in addition to their friendly Intourist guides (both civilian), they pick up two geeks (also civilian), a couple of brass (including a three-star), and a smarmy wonk who's an "Administrator" as well as NID (Frank, Francis, Freddy...something like that). There's a lot of "Home World Heroes" crap—something he could really live without, but all that "thin red line of heroes" bushwah is actually useful when it comes to next year's operational budget.

By the time he's nodded and smiled through as much of it as he can stand, he realizes Carter has her "concerned" face on. She's been trying to corner one of the geeks ever since the nickel tour started, but even with Daniel helping, she hasn't quite been able to manage it. (NID wonk (Ferdinand? Farrell?) could have a great career as a sheepdog.) Jack can't get close to Hammond without being noticed, either, so no help there, even if one star trumped three.

There's something hinky in the state of Nevada, and none of them has any idea of what it is. Jack _really_ hopes he can mark all the fuss down to geek inferiority complex and the fact that lab-coats can't stage a decent pissing contest even with home court advantage, except for the fact that _his_ geeks are both looking worried, and Daniel's maybe ninety seconds from going into his snake baiting routine.

Make that zero seconds.

"I'm sorry—" Daniel isn't sorry. (And they say the man can't lie.) "—but the thing I really don't quite understand is _what's going on?"_

"Doctor Jackson, the quantum mirror presents—" Administrator McSlime is circling back to pour oil on the troubled archaeologist. (Jack is forever grateful that SG-1 never pulled one of those "And Then They All Developed Telepathy" missions, or his hard-honed reputation as a lazy idiot would be toast.)

"An unparalleled opportunity to destroy not just the universe, but all the universes there are," Daniel says brightly, beaming as if he considers that a great idea. "Which is why we're destroying it. We _are_ destroying it, right?" He's got that note in his voice that always reminds Jack of the sound of a buzzsaw about to bite into a nice juicy piece of cedar board. (Not unlike Daniel in this mood.)

"Of course we are, Doctor Jackson!" Labcoat #1 chimes in.

"And of course successfully destroying what is essentially a block of pure _naquadaah_ presents a particular technical challenge—" That's Carter, pouncing on the opening she's been given. (Labcoat is doomed.) McSlime tries to shut Carter down, but he's no match for Daniel's "Scientists Have An Ethical Obligation To Understand The Consequences Of Their Research" lecture. (It's a real crowd-pleaser. Jack's heard it more times than he can count.) By this time, Jack's starting to get spooked. Why them? Why here? What kind of operational speed-bump is something Carter and Daniel would _both_ notice?

Unfortunately, as a last-minute consequence of their native uprising, the four of them are shuffled into one limo while the NID shepherds its vestal geeks off into another. Carter and Daniel look unhappy, which is to say, Carter's wearing her best poker face and Daniel looks rabid. It isn't fair to start with Carter, who isn't allowed to call him names or to (accurately) point out his (many) shortcomings.

"Daniel?" he says.

"Jack?" Daniel answers innocently.

Jack would like to take the time to mention that he, Colonel Jonathan J. "Jack" O'Neill, is on his, Doctor Daniel Melburne Jackson's, side, but there are more important fish to fry right now. "So did you manage to find out why we're here to watch people destroy the...thing?"

"The Quantum Mirror," Daniel says. "Which presents an unparalleled opportunity to study the culture of an advanced alien civilization." From his tone of voice, he's quoting.

"Which we're destroying," Jack says, since he hasn't heard anything that sounds like confirmation yet. "Unless they've decided to bring us here to watch them...not destroy it?"

"Which would make as much sense as anything else the military does."

"And how, Daniel, does one watch something _not_ happening?"

Daniel says something under his breath and slouches back in his seat. "They said they're destroying it," he adds, a little louder. Daniel is the only person Jack knows who can imply footnotes. In this case, the footnote reads: _"Not that I believe that, but they're too stupid to lie."_

"Well, good." It's his very best "Colonel Oblivious" voice, not that he's likely to receive any appreciation for the performance. "Carter? They told you the same thing, right? Because otherwise we're just here to watch the flouting of a direct order from the Pentagon." And the Pentagon signs off on civilian as well as military paychecks for this project, which gives them a bit of clout here.

Carter gives him a look that reminds him she's both Major Samantha Carter and the daughter of (two-star) General Jacob Carter. (He's just glad he and she are on the same side.) "As you know, sir, the preliminary analysis I was able to perform on the Quantum Mirror after we originally retrieved it from P3R-233 indicated that it was nothing more than a block of pure _naquadaah_ , although since we've seen the Mirror function on multiple occasions, it's clear that it is actually a highly-sophisticated mechanism, possibly engineered at a subatomic level."

("No moving parts?" he asks, just to keep things, er, moving.

"No, Jack," Daniel says with theatrical patience. "No moving parts.")

Carter ignores both of them. "I've theorized that it might even be possible to construct an equivalent nanomachine from a less-durable material; though it's possible that the _naquadaah_ also provides a necessary power source for the Quantum Mirror's operation. Regardless, the destruction of a piece of _naquadaah_ has never been attempted, let alone on this scale, and therefore—"

"Carter. You said "therefore"."

"Sir?"

""Therefore" means the explanation is going to be... long. Do we have time for this?"

"That depends on where we're going," Daniel mutters.

"We are going to the location where the Quantum Mirror is to be destroyed," Teal'c says.

There's a moment of respectful silence. Jack admits (privately) that he's just been put in his place by the big guy, and Carter seems to have gotten her bearings. Daniel still looks as if he wants to make somebody regret knowing him.

"We have no way of destroying an object made of _naquadaah_ other than hurling it into the sun, which might present problems of its own," Carter says. "Doctor Auchtenberger said they're actually planning to render the device inoperable."

"And did he say _how_ he intended to manage this?"

"Not...really. He did mention broad-spectrum irradiation, sir."

"It's not like anyone had time for a cozy chat with the people who actually _found the Quantum Mirror in the first place,"_ Daniel snips.

"In fact, they wished to keep you from speaking to anyone here," Teal'c says.

Okay, that's the second time T's spoken up, and Jack isn't stupid. "T?"

"Among the _Goa'uld,_ there are occasions upon which one of lesser status will provide information of use to a superior so that they might curry favor. The _Goa'uld_ who does not keep such an informant close when acting upon his information does not retain power for long."

For some reason, this makes Daniel's face scrunch up like a wet washcloth. "So we're here because we're—in a manner of speaking—the lesser _Goa'uld_ who are currying the favor? Which would make Administrator McGinnis...a System Lord?"

Teal'c manages to frown severely and nod in acknowledgement at the same time.

"But we didn't have anything to do with it—in a manner of speaking," Carter says. "It was General Hammond who ordered it destroyed."

 _And how many people besides the five of us know the thing even exists?_ There's a lot of compartmentalization in SCI Top Secret programs. Sure, half the SGC was on 233 looking for Daniel. That's not the same as knowing what the Mirror is. Or what it can do. In fact, Jack would bet his next paycheck that the five of them are the only SGC-side members of that little club.

"They're probably just covering their...assets," Jack says.

"Why?" Daniel asks bluntly.

"Witnesses make things easier when you have to explain to your friends why they can't play with your new toys, Daniel."

"But that doesn't make sense," Carter objects. "General Hammond only ordered it destroyed so people from other realities can't come into ours. We have no way of even turning it on without the controller, and that's in another dimension."

"Ever play "telephone", Carter?"

"So what you're saying is, the idea is that they're doing this because they know we know, and while we know they know we know, we don't _absolutely_ know what they think we know, or what other people will think we know, nor do we know that other people will definitely know."

Jack's impressed. Daniel isn't even drunk.

"I'm sure General Hammond would never consider doing anything unethical, sir," Carter says hopefully.

"Yeah, me too," Jack says. "It's everybody else I'm worried about. Present company exempted."

If General Hammond weren't with them, Jack would be more inclined to think SG-1 was being set up for a "blue on blue" incident, but Hammond has friends in high places.

On the other hand, General Hammond isn't _exactly here,_ is he?

#

Their destination is visible about 15 minutes before they reach it, and Jack can't make up his mind whether or not a hallucination would be preferable. It's a _reviewing stand_ , for God's sake: raw wood, patriotic bunting, the usual folding chairs, and absolutely nothing to review.

They've even run up a PA gantry, which is just surreal. What are they going to announce?

For the middle of nowhere, the place's got a helluva parking lot: several tastefully camouflage-painted trucks, a few white vans, a generator on the back of a flatbed double-deuce and black power cables snaking all over the place. Their driver pulls up at the end of the line, and the car following them pulls up beside them. It's not the car with the brass—that's pulling up at the far end. SG-1 is out of the car before the driver finishes announcing they've arrived.

The air smells like desert, and there's a thin irritating wind. Jack walks away from the car to see if he can spot Hammond. He makes sure to keep his blandest expression firmly in place, though, because there's nothing they can do about any of this right now, and he doesn't want his kids thinking there's anything life-threatening to worry about. Even if he's starting to suspect there is.

Behind him, the second car disgorges geeks in a way that would give rise to the obvious joke about clown cars if Jack weren't so spooked. Administrator McNID hurries them off between the cars as if their virtue was in danger.

Daniel's looking at the reviewing stand with an expression of disbelief. Carter's looking at the trucks as if they're personally offensive. Teal'c, as always, is watching for an ambush. Jack herds the three of them in the direction of General Hammond. McSlime scurries up to them as if he wants to turn them aside, thinks better of it after Teal'c looks at him, and settles for escorting them to the brass. (The geeks have taken the opportunity to flee to the safety of the white vans, and Jack really wishes he could send Carter off after them.)

He gets close enough to Hammond to mention _entre nous_ that Carter has some reservations. The look he gets in return tells him more than he wants to know about the possibility of calling this thing off. At this point, Jack's just hoping that Daniel keeps his mouth shut and they all get home alive.

He's always known Earth is the most dangerous planet they visit.

Once they're all seated (military in the front row, aliens, civilians, and others in the back) there's _another_ welcoming speech from NID Guy (he isn't sure he envies Daniel his ability to remember the names of annoying people), followed by a speech from Project Seven Years' Bad Luck's (it isn't called that, but it should be) lead scientist (aka: another project manager who uses bigger words). Short version: about a mile away, there is a very deep hole in the ground. At the bottom of this hole is a choice assortment of implements of destruction—among them the second cousin of that bomb he took to Abydos not that many years ago—and all manner of recording equipment, the idea being that they can find out a bunch of stuff about their alien toy and blow it up at the same time. Why SG-1 is here for this is apparently to remain one of life's mysteries.

"Sir! A _known_ property of _naquadaah_ is to be able to store and contain energy—" Carter hisses in his ear.

"Boom?" he asks.

"Big one," she says grimly.

"Get to the van and stop it. That's an order, Major." He gets to his feet. "Pardon me, excuse me, sirs, General Hammond, gentlemen and...gentlemen. Major Carter would really appreciate the opportunity to—"

And that's when the countdown starts.

_Ten—_

Carter runs down the stairs, skittering over the hardpan in those Class A high heels as she heads for the trucks. She's acting on his direct orders and maybe that will save her at the courts-martial, but they have to get there first.

_Nine—_

Everybody's on their feet now, and General Hammond is demanding to know what's going on. "Shut it down!" Jack shouts at the top of his lungs. "Shut it down!" The three-star's aides are between him and McGinnis, and Jack's _not sure_ who's the ranking officer here, but he knows McGinnis is in charge so he'll have to do.

_Eight—_

Teal'c vaults over the railing and drops to the ground. He takes off running in the direction of the little flag sticking out of the top of a fresh-poured concrete cap. Ground Zero.

"Daniel! Van! Go!"

Everybody's shouting by now. The three-star's aides grab him before he can get to McGinnis.

_Seven—_

The countdown hasn't stopped. Please, God, Carter, Daniel, and the van full of geeks can find the "Abort" switch.

_Six—_

The sound of the countdown is drowned out by a warning siren. He sees McGinnis—followed by Daniel—run for the stairs.

_Five—_

"You're going to blow us all up!" In about five seconds, but he has to keep trying.

_Four—_

Teal'c reaches the flag and rips it loose. He stops and turns back. He's shouting something, but he's too far away to hear. If they didn't pull the plug, they're just about—

_Light._

#

There's a few moments after an explosion (or after getting hit in the head by something large and unyielding, like the ground), when you can hear, you can feel, and if you're lucky you can even still see, but you have absolutely no idea what's going on, or who you are. (Jack tries not to dwell on such moments.)

"As you should know by now, although I know you don't pay any attention to Sam's briefings, multiverse theory is based on the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum theory, which suggests that a separate universe is spawned by every possible decision—or set of decisions—that an individual makes. Normally these universes are assumed not to intersect—which is confuted by the functioning of the Quantum Mirror—but Brane cosmology not only makes allowance for the intersection of parallel universes, it allows Time to run backward in some of them, which is lucky for you. Or them. Or us."

He has the sense of being indoors, but in a large space. Hangar? Somewhere neither hot or cold. Air breathable, but not fresh. He has an odd conviction that he can see, despite the fact that all he can see is unrelieved blackness.

And somebody's talking.

"You see, Brane cosmology posits that alternate universes cluster in a process similar to consanguinity, which is useful when you add in the theory of observer-created reality, which is not a theory in the same sense as your theory that someday the Cubs will win the World Series."

("Hey!" Jack protests.) (The Cubs are totally gonna nail it. Someday. You gotta believe.)

"You could think of it kind of as if "In the Beginning was the Word", was translated as, "Just before the Beginning there was the Innocent Bystander". Ludwig Boltzmann is actually credited with the original idea, and of course the academic community thought he was crazy. Something I'm very familiar with, actually."

Whoever's talking is behind him. He doesn't know whether he turns or the speaker moves, but now he can see—

"Daniel."

Okay. That's Daniel. Most of the jigsaw falls into place: SG-1, Nevada, Quantum Mirror, Bomb. Daniel was wearing a suit and tie for their little field trip, but now he's changed to a sweater, and he isn't wearing his glasses. But maybe Jack _needs_ glasses, because he'd swear Daniel is...glowing?

"Hi, Jack. Great to see you again. How's everything? But as I was saying, that's good news for you because of the native attraction the parallel clusters have to one another, and I'm pretty sure you aren't listening to a word I'm saying, are you?"

Maybe this isn't Daniel. In fact, it probably isn't Daniel, since while Daniel is capable of lecturing at interminable and tedious length, this sounds more like Carter. And if Daniel could be used as a reliable light source, he'd have noticed some time in the last four years or so.

"I'm all in favor of native attraction," Jack says reasonably. "Who are you, and what have you done with my team?"

"Ah," Daniel says. "Um. Well. You and they...um, _we..._ Us. There's probably no good way to say this, but..."

"So you're saying I'm dead?"

Glowy Probably Not Daniel looks obscurely pleased, and maybe just a little surprised. "How did you—?"

"When people start a sentence that way, the end is usually something like that. And I seem to remember a bomb."

Jack is pretty sure his hands and feet and all points in between are present and accounted for, but he really doesn't want to get into verifying it. He's afraid he might not like the answer. He thinks of that old staple of the sci-fi matinee, the brain in the tank. He doesn't want to try to imagine what it feels like. He thinks he might know.

"Yeah. Really, Jack: you shouldn't try breaking interdimensional nanomachines you don't understand. It gives the multiverse a headache."

"Wasn't me. So. Carter? Teal'c?"

"All four of you were within a mile of each other, Jack," Daniel says gently. "But my point is, like Schrödinger's Cat, you—all of you—are both dead and alive. The "prime" universe—that's the one that embodies co-identical versions of the majority of the decision branches in its local cluster—automatically shifts whenever any universe becomes attracted to a different cluster. And by "shifts", I mean "is consolidated with the former "prime" universe in all ways that don't present an absolute contradiction to the local universe physical laws.""

"I'm dead, Carter's dead, Teal'c's dead, Hammond's dead? So why aren't you dead?" He's dead, he's in Hell, and Hell is listening to Daniel Jackson lecture on quantum states for all Eternity.

"Oh, I am." Glowy Daniel grins at him, inviting Jack to share a joke that hasn't been told yet. "And that lets me travel between parallel universes of the local cluster."

"And we're having this conversation why?" Get whatever information you can, worry about it making sense later. Early lessons, unforgotten.

"Haruspices," Daniel says instantly. "It's the plural of haruspex, one who divines the future by inspecting the entrails of a sacrificed animal. You see, because the "prime" designation can flip from one universe to the next, information can travel between them as well. It's why divination works just well enough to perpetuate its practice, although you'd think people would know better. It's the local cluster bleed-through."

"Should've had this conversation with Carter." Something's happening. Not in a starting-happening way, but in the way you abruptly notice something's going on. Like when you're high. Or really drunk. Or bleeding out.

"I am."

It's as if (Glowy) Daniel is talking, but Jack isn't hearing his words, he's reading them. Maybe on a CRT, or maybe on one of those news tickers that used to wrap around buildings. Whatever happened to those? The words are getting bigger and smaller and changing colors and turning into pictures. He tries to focus on Glowy Daniel, but he can't even remember what Daniel looks like. Or Carter. Or Teal'c. Or his fourth grade English teacher. Or his own face in the mirror.

"I'm hoping all of you will—well, "remember" is as good a word as any—this in the new prime universe. Maybe you'll fix things so Prime won't shift again. It's worth a try."

Now it's as if he's the one lecturing, not Daniel. Or as if he, all of them, are melded together.

As if they're only symbols representing themselves.

Descriptions.

Memories.

Blueprints.

"Goodbye, Jack. Good luck."

There's always a Plan B.

(And darkness was on the face of the deep.)

#

_Jack likes Area 51. Dreamland. Paradise Ranch. The place where wonks and strategists meet to hone the cutting edge in aviation technology, or to test the best of the best against the best of the rest._

_He thinks he might've liked it better before they _really_ started storing alien technology here._

_This time it started one fine morning with him getting hauled out of bed three hours before his alarm went off and ended up with an Asgard mothership hovering over Cheyenne Mountain. In an alternate universe, of course..._

Local cluster.

###

**Author's Note:**

> And now the whining, which we will tactfully call Author's Notes.
> 
> IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME, PART 1: "H" is my third letter for Quantum Alphabet Soup, and the first time, I think, that I've done three. H an Z are based on "Point of View", while "Y" was post-"Ripple Effect".
> 
> While y'all know how much I love Quantum Mirror fics, I suffered a major brain-cramp trying to figure out how to spin my letter(s) into a story, and many kudos to Fig (aka ) for extending the posting deadline.
> 
> H differs from Y and Z because it is very nearly an actual story (the other two are really vignettes, IMOSHO). When I started typing, all I had in mind was: "Area 51 blows up the QM, bizarre stuff follows." (I wish to note here something I couldn't find any other place for, which is that in "Ripple Effect", Dr. Lee confirms that the QM has indeed been zetzed. Not that I would trust Dr. Lee to find my native universe in order to return me to it.)
> 
> Everything started out so non-terrifyingly. The first part was easy (aside from writing Jack POV, which always means writing a lot of words and then cutting, cutting, cutting) and I really enjoyed getting in some general Classic Team Snark (I am also relieved that Teal'c deigned to make an appearance in this fic, because usually he goes wandering off and I am left with the _Tau'ri_ Terrors). But then I got up to where everything blows up, with me still locked into the POV of the most non-discursive narrator in the entire history of Ever.
> 
> IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME, PART 2: I had thought of a lot of things that could happen at this point, like a quick zip through the canonical AUs plus some speculative AUs playing off "Ripple Effect". And because I figured somebody would reference the quantum multiverse theory at some point, I sauntered off to Wikipedia to check the terminology. (Spoiler: I already knew what Boltzman Babies were, and the concept CRACKS ME UP EVER SINGLE TIME. It also justifies the existence of the Annunaki, so, win.)
> 
> And suddenly I found myself in a classic "White Room" scenario. Only it was black, of course. With Surprise!Glowy Daniel as tonight's guest lecturer on the topic of "that is not dead which can eternal lie".
> 
> And for some reason, that creeped me the fuck out.
> 
> It's not that I never kill off any of the main characters, because I do, a lot. I think it was more about the sense of _complicity_ I felt that Jack had in his death, which is weird because I only got that vibe after he was, well, _dead._ Or maybe it was about the scale of the stuff I was working with. Not even galaxies, or galactic clusters, but whole gigantic entire universes. Infinities of universes, infinitely multiplying throughout infinity, and no sense of an organic, let alone human, conscious viewpoint anywhere. I don't know. I just know it was kind of weird. (I may be the only one who thinks so.)
> 
> Okay. Done.


End file.
